


Before/After

by AustinB



Series: Tumblr Prompts [13]
Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Angst, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, karen being awesome
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-29
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-28 19:10:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5102402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AustinB/pseuds/AustinB
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She wipes the tear tracks gently from his face with her fingertips before finishing patching him up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before/After

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt from Anon: a two-parter Karedevil fic where part one is Karen cleaning up little cuts on Matt BEFORE she knows he’s Daredevil (like she still thinks he’s just clumsy), and part two is her cleaning up cuts/wounds AFTER she finds out.

## Before

She’s chatty, pulling him into a back-and-forth that he hadn’t thought possible two hours ago, when he was staggering out of a warehouse, bleeding from the head.

Her hands are gentle, touches tender as she teases him.

“Honestly I thought you were better at being blind. You’re clumsier than I am.”

“Oh please, you’re like a ballerina you’re so graceful,” he replies easily. 

Karen laughs. Matt can almost feel the heat radiating from her face.

“I wish. And stop deflecting, I’m trying to tease you.”

“Sorry.” With the morning sun warming the office and her voice chasing the shadows from his heart he can almost forget how he got these cuts in the first place.

She smooths a bandaid over the cut at his hairline and trails her thumb down to his cheek.

“Good as new, sort of. Matt, you need to be more careful, ok?”

“Ok,” he agrees.

* * *

## After

She’s quiet, tense like a piano wire.

He wants to say something, wants  _her_  to say something – anything – but his mouth is dry and the cut on his lip pulls when he swipes his tongue over it.

His body and mind are shot from the up and down of adrenaline and exhaustion and it makes her anger seem a little bit like the end of the world for him.

Her hands are gentle, touches tender and it breaks him. A hot tear crashes from the corner of his eye and falls on her thumb where she’s holding his head still so she can blot the blood from under his ear.

She sighs heavily and breathes, “Matt.”

His name, softly spoken in her voice shatters the silence as effectively as a gunshot.

He opens his mouth to apologize but knows all that will come out is a sob so he shuts it again.

Karen– _god_ –Karen steps in to him and he’s glad he’s sitting because his legs wouldn’t hold him up as he presses his face into her stomach. He’s probably getting blood on her dress but he can’t bring himself to pull away just yet, not when she’s threading her fingers through his hair gently, soothing.

He’s the one who lied to her, deceived her and used her kindness to his advantage time and time again, and she’s the one comforting him. It’s backward–it’s all wrong so he lets her go. Some of her strength must have seeped into him because he finally finds his voice.

“I’m sorry,” he says, though he couldn’t say exactly what for. All of it, probably. He’s apologized already, but he thinks she’s ready to hear it now.

“Hush. Keep still,” she demands, but there’s no heat behind it. She wipes the tear tracks gently from his face with her fingertips before finishing patching him up. She doesn’t put a bandaid over the bridge of his nose and he’s grateful. He’d rather not look as much like a fool as he feels.

When she zips up the first aid kit, there’s no more excuse to touch him but she does anyway, cupping his face between her palms. Matt feels a fresh wave of guilt and shame and gratefulness rising in his chest.

“Matt, you need to be more careful,” she says softly. “Ok?”

He swallows hard and nods minutely. With her touching him like this, he’d agree to anything.


End file.
